Yesterday I read a kind of ridiculous news from my beloved country, Indonesia.

A Harvard’s student named Bryan went to Banda Aceh for a research and learning Aceh culture. But he got a big surprise at his first night on the city that was swept by tsunami at 2005.

In the middle of night, a group of shariah police, cops, officials, and reporters were banging the door and broke into his room. They later investigate the room, perhaps looking for any girl(s) that might be there.

The hotel manager said that “the raid” was performed to welcome the holly Ramadhan month, a month where mosleem fasting from dawn until evening.

This is Indomie, best instant noodle in the world. Those who leave Indonesia for their study or working abroad, will mostly miss this instant noodle.

I also heard that this instant noodle were produced outside Indonesia, to fulfill demand from some countries where many Indonesian live. They said, the taste are localized so they still miss Indonesia's Indomie.

I had a pleasure to write all about instant noodles, called Ramen Rider. But it's currently discontinued.

As seen on States of the mobile Web, Indonesia is the leading country for Opera Mini users all around the world. With this great number of users, Indonesia is a very promising market for Opera.

Most of My Opera Community members from Indonesia whom I know use only cellphone to write blog post, upload photos and make friends. Some of them don't even have any PC nor able to operate PC. Based on this phenomenon, what Opera needs is not a fancy technology –because Opera already has it– but rather a way to make Opera Mini's user's life become easy and easier.

And it was an amazing thing when I received a private message from my childhood friend through Facebook because as far I know there wasn't any internet connection in my parent's hometown. He managed to send me private message using his only cheap cellphone, using Opera Mini! :up:

It passionates me more. I fall in love with Opera and start to recommend this browser to friends, friends of friends and as many people as I could. Now they come to me every time they have problem or question with Opera. And I love to answer their question, not forget to mention Tamil's blog that helps me much.

Later on, to spread Opera features all over Indonesian users, I have made a blog named Opera ID. It's written in Indonesian language and is a fun project. Well, it's not my first blog about Opera. I wrote any posts related to Opera on my personal blog and I was happy when Opera Watch put a link into it.

I'm very sure with the wide spread of cellphone all over Indonesian archipelago, more people will get connected into Internet and into each other. And by the help of Opera Mini, knowledges are belong to all human being.

I was searching on Google using ‘Komodo’ as a keyword to find out informations about Komodo dragon. Just for the shake of my curiosity because I never see Komodo in my real life.

It’s sad to see that my first page of search results on Google gave me a list of computer software named Komodo instead of a reptile named Komodo which reside on an island called Komodo Island (lies between the substantially larger neighboring islands Sumbawa to the west and Flores to the east).

I’ve heard about this reptile since I was a young boy and I could only imagine that this reptile ought just like lizard. But lately I found that I was wrong because in fact Komodo (Varanus komodoensis) is an ancient carnivore, growing to an average length of 2 to 3 meters (6.6 to 9.8 ft) and weighing around 70 kilograms. Wow, that’s a giant lizard! :up:

Their body size is an affect of so called island gigantism, a phenomenon that caused by the lack of carnivore predators in their habitat and their low metabolism. Thus, they dominate the ecosystem (no other animals eat them). Komodo will eat almost anything, including carrion, deer, pigs, smaller dragons, and even large water buffalo and humans! :doh:

Komodo dragons were first documented by westerner in 1910, when rumors of a “land crocodile” reached Lieutenant van Steyn van Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial administration. Later, Peter Ouwens (the director of the Zoological Museum at Bogor, Java) published a paper on the topic after receiving a photo and a skin from the lieutenant, as well as two other specimens from a collector.

Komodo was a name given by W. Douglas Burden on a second expedition at 1926, while the locals call the lizard as Ora. Komodo is a very aggressive animals even when they looked very tame. Phil Bronstein (Sharon Stone’s ex-husband) was a victim of violence by the dragon. He was bitten and need serious surgery to recover.

The interesting part is this carnivore only inhabits the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang in Indonesia. Not only the Komodo, local people also reside on that island and endanger the life of Komodo (well, sometimes Komodo endanger humans too).

These volcanic islands are inhabited by a population of around 5,700 giant lizards. They exist nowhere else in the world and are of great interest to scientists studying the theory of evolution.

I like to say that Komodo Island is a unique tourism destination, where prehistoric animals still alive and shares the land with human being. The island also known as Taman Nasional Komodo by The Government of Republic of Indonesia or Komodo National Park.

It’s not difficult to get there. To see the real Komodo with our own eyes, we can go to Bali and go to Labuan Bajo, Flores by land transport.

While most visitors enter Komodo National Park (KNP) through the gateway cities of Labuan Bajo in the west of Flores or Bima in eastern Sumbawa, the departure point for your trip is actually Denpasar, Bali. Komodo National Park website..

As a gate to Komodo Island, there are many travel agents at Labuan Bajo that serve tours to Komodo Island. There are various itinerary and the cost is started from US$ 250 for 3 days and 2 nights trip. We can also take travel agent from Bali with higher rate, including flight from Denpasar to Sumbawa on Fokker 50.

The price is excludingKomodo National Park‘s conservation fee (US$ 15) and travel/personal insurance. Insurance is an important thing because the island is a large and dry savanna and a tropical island. One more note to remember, Komodo’s saliva is very poisonous. We don’t want them to bite us, especially when we have no personal insurance :no:

Not forget to mention, bring jacket or any warm clothes. It’s hot in the day but could be very cold in the night. Sun block cream is also suggested. And since the tour package and price might be changed, we better ask for any information from hotels in Bali first or refer to information of how to go to Komodo Island (there are information of how long the trip will be).

Don’t forget to bring snorkeling/diving equipments because there are some beautiful snorkeling/diving spots that you should not miss. It’s suggested to bring our own diving/snorkeling equipments although we will also find many rentals there. Snorkeling/diving rate (and equipments) is excluded from the price above, otherwise mentioned.

They have oceanic regulators and gauges, buddy BCD, prescription masks minus 1.5 up to minus 8, 5 and 3 mm suits, long and short, boots and fins, computers. In case it is not available because of any reason, they will suggest us to take along or hire them in Bali before travel to do dive in Komodo.

As mentioned on Komodo National Park’s official website, there are many diving spots shown on the website. Tanjung Rusa, Toro Oi, Lohwenci, GPS Point, Tukoh Serikaya, Tukoh Lehokgebah, Banana Split, Batu Saloka, Letuhoh Reef are just a few. It’s not a place for beginner, but if we’re lucky enough, we might encounter 8 meter manta ray. What a wonderful place to visit!

Because of its exoticsm, The Komodo Island should be nominated and voted on the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign. I don’t have to wait to experience the adventure on Komodo Island to put my voice on the campaign. It’s the only place where human and dragon live together, in a real world! :yes:

Apart from its beauty, the park is facing another problem. Blast ReelChase fishing, cyanide fishing, reef gleaning, fish traps, over-harvesting and live reef fish trade are threaten the ecosystem. UNESCO has put the site as world heritage and together with Komodo National Park they manage to save the site.

It’s been a common thing to see people using the word bahasa that refer to bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). While I disagree with this, the number of people who use bahasa instead of Bahasa Indonesia are increasing.

People thought that it’s correct just because westerner use the word bahasa, not Bahasa Indonesia. I think they should learn that not all western things are good to follow.

Bahasa means language, then how come a word language is referred to Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language)? We can use bahasa everywhere, for example bahasa tubuh (body language) and Bahasa Jerman (German language).

I don’t think that we can use bahasa as a replacement word for Bahasa Indonesia. This is a mistake and we can’t be proud of it.

Last week, I got a chance to join a seminar held by Opera and Gadjah Mada University. Yes I missed Pesta Blogger but I got another good event for my weekend. I wrote about the seminar in my another blog.

And today I walked around the Net, found this photo gallery:Visit this photo gallery to view all images.

Now I put my butt over a wooden chair on a local cafe with two friends. It was five but two of us had left. Spending the nite here with coffee, tea, salads etc with a friendly prices and free internet connection.

I do have my own internet connection at home but I can't get tea, salad etc rite? 😀

I'm enjoying my coffee at the same cafe as I wrote yesterday, enjoying the independent day of Indonesia.

The best thing is from my country, among other things, is the freedom. I know that government failed to provide jobs for the citizen, but this made the citizen strugling their life and raised up their head to get more welfare, and made them stronger.